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Sunday, April 12, 2015

“Startling Faith: He Just Keeps Showing Up” (John 20:19-31)

Has anyone ever met “Kilroy”?I know I haven’t, but from the evidence found
throughout the world he seems to get around . . . so, surely, someone has met
the infamous “Kilroy”.Don’t know what I
am talking about?Well, maybe you have
seen those little graffiti drawings of a bald-headed man with a prominent nose
peeking over a wall with the fingers of each hand clutching the wall with the
words “Kilroy was here” written next to it.Apparently that is “Kilroy’s” trademark letting people know that he was
there.

According to my research, “Kilroy was
here”, was a popular cultural expression that was popular during the Second
World War . . . in particular with American servicemen.It seems that the GIs liked to draw the
doodle on the walls and other places where they were stationed, encamped, or
visited.Despite the phrase being
written everywhere, it seems no one ever caught up with the infamous
“Kilroy”.No one ever saw the guy but he
was showing up everywhere.

As a people of faith I sometimes wonder
if we do not have the same problem when it comes to Jesus . . . wonder how many
of us have actually encountered Jesus in our own lives . . . seen him with our
own eyes . . . touched him with our own hands.More often than not I think we encounter the reminder . . . the graffiti
on the wall . . . that announces that “Jesus was here”.When we look around our lives of faith it
seems as if Jesus has been everywhere; yet, we cannot actually say that we
peered into the eyes of our Lord and Master . . . at least not like the early
disciples did.

After the death and resurrection it
seems that everywhere the disciples went . . . no matter how well they hid
themselves . . . Jesus was always showing up.In our reading this morning we have reference that he showed up numerous
times . . . two in particular . . . and mingled with his disciples.It was the real “McCoy” as they even had the
opportunity to touch him and talk to him . . . Jesus was there.And, the writer of John’s gospel tells us
that he even performed other miraculous signs in their presence.

Yep, Jesus was there, and the writer
of John’s gospel wrote it all down . . . a sort of theological “Kilroy . . . or
Jesus . . . was here” statement . . . so that the readers “may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”He does this because it seems that
most of us are always a second too late, a dollar short, and always missing
that physical meeting with Jesus.Yet,
we are among the blessed for having not actually seen him . . . Jesus tells
Thomas:“. . . blessed are those who have
not seen and yet have believed.”

Few of us have ever had a Damascus
Road experience or encounter with Jesus like the Apostle Paul . . . yet, we
know he exists and we believe.We have
seen his presence all around us . . . felt his presence surrounding us . . .
seen his touch in the lives of those who we know . . . we have seen the
miracles . . . we have seen the writing on the wall: “Jesus was here”.Yet, we long for that face-to-face “show me”
encounter—just like Thomas.We want to
put our fingers in the holes in Jesus’ hands . . . we want to touch the wound
in his side . . .

The journey of Easter is a search for
the presence of Jesus in our lives and in the world around us . . . and,
surprisingly, Jesus is all around us.He
just keeps on showing up.And, more
often than not, our encounters with the Risen Lord are startling.Those first encounters of Jesus with his
disciples had to be startling affairs.Here were the disciples in hiding behind locked doors, and Jesus shows
up.Over and over again Jesus shows up,
catching the disciples off guard.And,
so it seems he does the same thing to us . . . and, we are startled to realize
that we have been in the presence of Jesus.

I think that it is with perfect 20/20
hindsight that we come to this realization . . . what we read the graffiti on
the wall.Yet, in looking back we know
that Jesus was there.

We shouldn’t be surprised.Jesus gave us plenty of examples of when he
would be in our presence.He told us in
the parable of the sheep and goats . . . that whenever we encounter “one of the
least of these” we would encounter him.He also told us that whenever two or three are gathered in his name, he
would be in our presence . . . he would be with us.He is there whether we see him or not . . .

. . . and, we have to believe.

During this Easter season, where are
we going to find Jesus?

Well, we know that we are not going to
find him in the empty tomb because he is not there.We are going to find him in the world around
us.I do not think that any of us are so
oblivious of the world around us that we cannot see those who are considered
“the least of these”.We have seen the hungry,
the naked, the lonely, the downtrodden, the poor, the imprisoned, those caught
in the middle of war, those who are persecuted, and those on the outside
looking in.The newspaper is filled with
such stories on daily basis.The
television and radio blast us constantly with visual reports of those who are
less fortunate.We cannot escape it . .
. and, yet, we wonder where in the world is Jesus?

Jesus is there.Jesus is among the less fortunate.We know this is true because we have seen the
writing on the wall . . . we have heard the stories of his miraculous touch in
their lives.Jesus is alive and well,
but he is out there in the world with those who have been deemed as “less
than”.But we will never encounter him
until we, too, are willing to walk with and among those who are less
fortunate.It is there that we,
ourselves, will encounter the Risen Christ.

That is where we must look for Jesus
during this Easter season.We must be
willing to actively participate in the world around us . . . to reach out to
those who are less fortunate than ourselves . . . to feed the hungry, to clothe
the naked, to be present to the lonely, to free the imprisoned.Strangely that is not where we expect to find
Jesus, yet that is where he told us he would be.To find him there is startling . . .
startling because it goes against our societal practices of everyone taking
care of him or herself . . . of pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps and
moving on . . . everyone for him or herself.

There is evidence of the presence of
Jesus all around us.We have all heard
the stories from those who have encountered his presence in their lives . . .
heard the miracles.Jesus was here.And, yet, we still long for that for
ourselves . . . and, we continue to believe.We continue to believe because we are among the blessed who have not
seen, but believe.Easter is the time to
move beyond belief into faith . . . faith is belief in action.It is in the action that we will encounter
the living Jesus.

May we all encounter the Risen Christ
this Easter season . . . may we meet him in the actions that we take to love
the Lord our God with our whole being and to love our neighbors as we love
ourselves.If we do we will find that
Jesus is always showing up.Amen.